Pacing of the Dragon
by Flying Through Clouds
Summary: Malcolm Pace is just another son of Athena - yeah, he's lived at Camp his whole life, but he's still just another camper. Until he's kidnapped on an end-of-the-school-year outing in Manhattan just after his eleventh birthday.


**A/N: I know I have another story cooking at the moment, but this is going to be the metaphorical spice to it. I came across this premise and absolutely could not let go of it.**

 **This story will have five chapters to it. I have the entire thing outlined from beginning to end. (Unlike LGEMC, which is outlined up to seven chapters so far, and the rest is unknown, depending on how the next few chapters play out.)**

 **Now, I'm not a smut writer, but I'm sure the first POV of this chapter gets the message across clearly enough as to what lead to what.**

 **Draco's birthday is on the 5** **th** **of June. (according to the Harry Potter wiki)**

* * *

 **Lucius Abraxas Malfoy's POV**

 _Late evening, early September, 16 years ago_

Lucius stormed out of the front door in a rage. That woman….! The blonde growled in rage and frustration. He didn't understand why his father would arrange a marriage with her. Narcissa's _audacity_ in daring to tell him what to do. Did she not understand that muggles and mudbloods were beneath her? "Luce, you need to stop. The Dark Lord is insane. We might be better than muggleborns, but they don't deserve genocide! Please, give up the Death Eater activities…it's not worth the consequences." She pleaded. He snorted. Narcissa is weak. She's not strong enough for the cause.

The proud Death Eater walked to the edge of the wards around his manor, then apparated away to an upscale pub in Knockturn Alley. Flagging the bartender, Lucius ordered a glass of strong Firewhiskey. The perfect way to wind down after an argument with a wilful wife with ideas beyond her station. A bright-eyed woman sat down next to him, greeting him with a coy smile.

She slid a box over to him. "It's a puzzle box. A friend gave it to me but I can't seem to open it. Do you think you could help a poor damsel out?"

Lucius laid a hand down on the box next to the woman's. "Only if I get something in return." It had many components to its smooth surface. Circles and cogs to turn, narrow strips of wood that slid. He turned it over in his hands, observing it. Then two minutes later he had an opened box. Inside lay a small pile of golden Galleons.

Lucius gave the woman a come-and-get me smirk and handed her the box. "Milady, your opened treasure chest." It was just then he felt her aura of _power_ through the haze of Firewhiskey. Distantly, the rational part of his mind made a note of her potential use to the cause. Such power shouldn't go to waste after all.

Smirking back, she leaned in, almost right next to his ear, and whispered in a suggestive tone, "I believe you asked for something in return?"

Well, one thing led to another in these situations – it was almost cliché, the husband on the outs with his annoying wife (political advantage is worth more than love, after all) falls in bed with a flirtatious, beautiful, bright eyed woman he met drinking away his woes. He certainly didn't regret it in the morning, no matter the hangover and cliché of the circumstance.

~~PD~LGEMC~~

 **Athena's POV**

 _Location unknown, June 7, 15 years ago_

This was always the hard part. Nine months ago, Athena had visited the British magical community – she had always had a soft spot for Hecate's people – to forget her responsibilities and dysfunctional family for a while. Poseidon was being his usual self, an emotional, stubborn idiot. They argued about it, as usual, but it was all so utterly _exhausting_. Right about then, she felt in the mood for a night out in an interesting corner of the world where they once held influence, maybe find a clever person who was also willing to just…forget.

Sometimes these excursions lead to a new half-blood. Exhibit A: the new born son of Athena she held in her arms. Already she could tell that her son would have grey eyes, just like his half-sister Annabeth.

Athena put all her concentration to the mansion that belonged to her son's father, and stepped through the Mist. She had staked it out yesterday. It had been disappointing to learn that the man she slept with turned out to be a deplorable – misogynistic and part of the so called "Death Eaters" terrorising magical Britain. His wife, on the other hand, is a somewhat decent mortal. She shared the same superiority complex most old blood wizards had, but didn't subscribe to the far extremes of the Death Eaters. Narcissa would protect him from Lucius, and when he was older he could make his way to Camp Half-Blood. Athena would rather that he didn't be placed here at all, but it was better than a mortal orphanage, magical or otherwise. Too many variables at play in a place like that. Here, at least, she had control over the situation and she could check up on him.

Appearing in the Malfoy Mansion's front hall, Athena set her new born son on the bench by the door. He was swaddled in a soft cream white baby blanket with shimmering gold Ancient Greek letters and owls. She tucked a note into the folds of the blanket.

 _To Lord and Lady Malfoy –_

 _This infant boy is the son of Lucius Malfoy, whom I met several months ago at a pub. Certain laws of my people prevent me from raising him myself. Take care of him, raise him as your own. When he is older, send him to Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary and training ground for those like himself – half god, half human. Enclosed is the address of the Camp._

 _Narcissa, I apologise. If I had known that Lucius had been married…At the time, asking questions like that was not a priority._

 _Athena_

Her name, she wrote in Ancient Greek. This was the hardest part…having to leave her children behind. They deserved better. _One day. One day I'll get Zeus to relent. Our children deserve so much more than this._

"Be strong, be wise, little one. You will need it in the days to come."She kissed her son on the forehead one last time before turning and fading into the Mist.

~~PD~LGEMC~~

 **Narcissa Malfoy's POV**

 _Malfoy Manor, June 7, 15 years ago_

The morning was quiet, the dawn's light soft and grey through the window. Narcissa looked over to her left – her husband Lucius was all the way on the other side of the bed, right near the edge. Snoring. Loudly. It was why she had woken up, at this early hour. She sighed deeply and reached over to the nightstand for a clip to pull her hair back. After fussing with her hair for a minute, she grabbed her wand and robe and went downstairs, calling for Nimsy. The house elf appeared with a crack.

"How can Nimsy help the Mistress Narcissa?" she asked.

Narcissa gave the house elf a small smile. "Could you get me some tea and toast please, Nimsy?" The house elf nodded in affirmation and disappeared to the kitchen.

This was Narcissa's favourite part of the day, when the house was quiet, peaceful, and she could have some time to herself. It was right then, as she was revelling in this quiet, that it was broken by a wail.

A baby's wail.

 _What in Merlin's name…?_

Narcissa pushed aside her confusion and practically flew to the front entryway the wailing was coming from. There, lying on the bench near the door, was a blonde infant wrapped up in a cream white blanket. She picked him up and rocked him back and forth, and noticed the note tucked into the blanket. Offhandedly, she recognised the odd, but elegant, gold designs on the blanket as Greek letters.

"Nimsy!" the Lady Malfoy called. The elf appeared with a crack, holding a small platter with tea and toast. "Please put that under a stasis spell, and get me a bottle with warm milk in it for this little one here."

Nimsy's eyes widened at the sight of the infant, but she complied with the request.

It was at this moment that Lucius deigned to join them. Narcissa was still rocking the infant back and forth, and he (well, she assumed for now. Priority was calming him down.) was beginning to quiet down from wailing to sniffling.

Lucius walked into the hall scowling. "Narcissa, what is the meaning of -" he stopped mid-sentence to gape at the swaddled new-born she was holding. "Where did _that_ thing come from?" he demanded.

Narcissa looked down at the infant, who had stopped sniffling, and was instead watching Lucius. "I don't know. I came down here to eat breakfast as I normally do, and then this little one started wailing. We have to find out who he is, Lucius. If you could, take a look at that note tucked into the blanket?"

Glaring at her, her husband removed the note and opened it up. As his eyes scanned the contents, the blood drained from his face. He looked over at the infant, then to the note, and back again. Narcissa had never seen such an expression on his face before. Wide eyed, he looked at the infant. "Merlin's saggy bollocks!"

At that moment, with a crack, Nimsy appeared and set the bottle of warm milk next to her. Noticing the heightened tension, she left the font hall without a word. Narcissa picked up the bottle and began to feed the hungry infant.

"Lucius…are you okay?" Narcissa asked carefully. She was being quite forward, when she was supposed to be meek and subservient. Still, what could be in the note to make the normally cool and collected Lucius Malfoy stunned and speechless?

Jaw set, Lucius looked at him. "We're not keeping him. Leave him at the WCPS orphanage, I don't care. We are not keeping a bastard son; it will ruin our reputation as a model pureblood family with the Dark Lord." Tossing the note down, he turned around to leave.

Narcissa gave a sharp intake of breath.

Shocked, she called out, "Lucius, wait! We can't just leave him at the mercy of strangers, he's an infant, bastard or not. Let's raise him, at least until he's able to eat regular food."

Lucius paused at the doorway. He didn't turn around. "Fine, but he's your problem. You handle the burden of raising him. As soon as he can eat solid food, I'm taking him to that…camp mentioned in the note."

"Yes, Lucius."

Narcissa looked at the note. Hurt and anger flashed through her at the fact that Lucius went and had an affair. Then again, was she supposed to expect? It's not like Lucius was a kind, upstanding citizen sort of person. The poor boy, he didn't ask for this, to have a mother unable to raise him, and then his father didn't want anything to do with him. There he was, drinking the milk, oblivious to everything going on around him.

Standing up, Narcissa walked to the living room, where her breakfast was waiting in stasis. She cooed at the infant. "Yes, you get your breakfast, but now I need to eat mine. Now, you need a name too. Draco sounds nice, doesn't it? Draco Lucius Malfoy…you are a Malfoy after all."

~~PD~LGEMC~~

 **Chiron's POV**

 _Camp Half-Blood, border, December 12, 15 years ago_

Chiron looked up from his book he was reading in the Big House's living room. Three campers stood in front of him – Andrew Pace, head counsellor of the Athena cabin, seventeen; Lucia Ealing, Demeter, fifteen; Trevor Yates, Hermes, also fifteen. Also half of the current afternoon border patrol – _Di_ _Immortales_ is that a baby?! Andrew held a blonde baby swaddled in a cream white blanket with gold…owls and Greek letters?

The centaur would bet a great many drachmas that this was an abandoned demigod child of Athena's. That sort of thing doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Chiron heaved a deep sigh, briefly closing his eyes. He carefully put the bookmark in the book and set it aside. Before any of the campers could speak, "Andrew. Where did you find that baby, and where is the rest of you patrol?"

The teen shuffled his feet a bit, and held the baby a little tighter. "Sir, we were doing our patrol as usual, when we heard a loud crack by the entrance. Before we could get there, the was another crack. And…well…when we got there, this little guy was sitting in a basket," he motioned towards the wicker basket by the door, "right in front of the entrance. All by himself, in the cold. No one else was around. There was no note. I left half the patrol to continue to patrol, and came straight here…Chiron…I think he's an abandoned demigod, since he passed through the boundary with no problem."

Standing up, Chiron looked at the three of them. "I agree with your theory, Andrew. Lucia, could you set up the empty guest room for a baby? Trevor, go with her. I am fairly certain that there is some appropriate furniture in the storage room at the end of the hall on the second floor. Andrew stay here with the baby."

The other two demigods scurried off. Andrew sat down on the couch, gently rocking the baby back and forth, as he started to sniffle. Chiron shifted back to his wheelchair form. "Three things, Andrew: First, I'd say he's about 6 months old, give or take a couple weeks. Second, he needs a name. Third, who's going to look after him the most, take on the brunt of raising a baby?"

It was at this moment the baby boy was claimed. The claiming symbol of Athena appeared over the baby's head, a glowing owl. Andrew looked down at the boy with a soft smile on his face. "Well, sir, I was already going to volunteer myself to look after this little guy, but now the whole Athena cabin will want to have a part in raising our newest brother."

This made Chiron smile. It was a common practise that when a very young demigod came to camp, that every member of their cabin will take a part in looking after them. Well, all the older members took the serious roles. The younger ones would just play with the small child. A particular memory came to mind – a three-year-old daughter of Hephaestus, from back in the fifties. The senior members gave up one of their "fun" activities, at different times of the day, to look after the toddler. Granted, Chiron had to take up the main caretaker role during the school year.

"He can have my name, Chiron," Andrew said suddenly, "He'll be a Pace, like me. Still have to come up with a first name though." The teen demigod paused. "We have to get him papers – registered with state so he can go to school and be a citizen and stuff – oh, my gods how are we going to do that?!"

Chiron smiled even wider. The joys of parenthood. "Don't worry about the papers, I'll take care of that, and official guardianship. You can be the emergency contact. However, I have non-negotiable condition – he stays in the Big House until he's older."

Andrew nodded in agreement. "That sounds great – perfectly reasonable that he stay's in the Big House for a while. You'll have no objections from us. No way is he ready for regular cabin life just yet."

It was then that Lucia and Trevor came back down the hall, just as the claiming symbol began to fade. Lucia's eyes widened almost comically. "He's been claimed? Oh, my gods that's great! Who's his godly parent?" she said excitedly, all in one breath.

Chiron covered his mouth with one hand to hide a quiet chuckle. Claimings were always so exciting, as they were infrequent, and positive in nature as it gave the claimed a sense of belonging. More room too if they weren't claimed by Hermes – who's cabin was overflowing with his own children plus the unclaimed. The infrequency bothered the centaur. Despite the excitement surrounding a claiming, there was always a feeling of bitterness from the other unclaimed underneath the surface. That feeling was going to break one day…but onto more pressing matters right now.

Andrew looked at Lucia and Trevor with a huge grin on his face. "You're looking at the youngest member of the Athena cabin! We're still working on a name for him – he's going to have my last name, but the first name is still undecided."

The two demigods sat down and began to toss out names. "Alex sounds good, or maybe Ryan?" Trevor started off.

"Ooh! How about Chris? Or William?" Lucia contributed.

The centaur left them to the brainstorming while he went to check the baby's room. The empty guest room had been painted a bluish grey colour, and the baby furniture was white. Some of the paint had chipped off over the years, and the furniture now had a rustic look to it. Overall, Lucia and Trevor had done a good job setting up the room. Now all they needed was supplies…he'd have to send some of the Athena campers out on a supply run, if they didn't come to him with the idea themselves, though they would most likely would. All the baby had was the onesie he was wearing and the baby blanket (he'd eat his own blanket if that wasn't the blanket Athena left him with on his father's doorstep) he was swaddled in.

Afternoon sunlight was streaming through the window. The crib was underneath it, a rocking chair in the corner next to it. In the opposite corner was some cube shelving, the changing table further down the wall. On the other wall was a dresser. A blue striped oval rug covered the centre of the dark brown floor. Huh. He'd forgotten they had that. Hadn't seen it in a decade or two. Last baby demigod left at camp had been a son of Hermes seven years ago, and the cabin had chosen a yellow rug.

Walking back down the hallway, Chiron stopped at the doorway to the living room. He listened to the excited chatter.

"Wallace, Zachary, maybe Jackson?"

Andrew shook his head. "No, I don't think so. What do you think, little guy? Any of those strike a chord with you?" The baby just looked up at him with a calm face.

The teens quieted, stumped on what to name this baby. Trevor's face suddenly brightened. "What do you think of Malcolm?"

This name seemed to please Andrew. He rocked the young son of Athena a bit. "Does that fit you, little guy? Malcolm Pace, that sounds like a good name."

The baby babbled happily in response. Andrew grinned fiercely. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Malcolm Pace, son of Athena!" He announced. "Let's take you to meet your brothers and sisters."

* * *

 **A/N: Reminder, this is part of the same universe as my other story. I'm thinking of LGEMC as the trunk of the universe, so to speak, and this as one of the larger branches off of the trunk. Any world-building content I post can be considered as the roots.**

 **A great many thanks to all those who have reviewed, favourited, and followed my other story in the interim between the posting of chapter IV and now.**

 **I highly recommend that you follow me as an author, as then you will get updates on all the works in this 'verse – be it LGEMC, PD, or any other future content.**

 **Reviews are most certainly welcome – particular reasonable, civil ones about content and mechanics.**

 **02 January 2018**


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